Mem cooling question..

Wasn't sure whether to put this in cooling or mem threads, but flipped a coin and ended up here..
Kind of noobish, but, I just bought some used heat spreaders(mushkin) to put on my corsair ram, and some of the thermal tape inside the spreaders is missing/ torn... Do I need to worry about that, or just put them on???

Anyone?

just make sure that the tape covers all the chips and is making proper contact with the spreader and you shouldent have a problem.

Worry might not be the right word, but if you want them to be more than just decorations, there has to be good contact between the heatspreaders and the ICs, plus the means to transfer the heat away from the ram. I believe that they would work best with the tape removed and replaced with AS5 or other similar product.

So a thin layer of as5 on both sides with the tape removed would be preferable, and not cause damage...??.. The tape in there will not be covering all the chips, so it wouldn't really be effective...
So do I just bend the clips in a little to be sure the spreades stay on? and try to keep the as5 off of everything but the chips?

With respect to the AS5, yes, just on the ICs, nothing else. You could put some "scotch" tape around the ICs before applying the AS, just to be sure you don't get it on everything else, then remove the tape prior to installing the spreaders. With respect to the spreaders, how tight is the clip? You could do a test run, before applying the AS, to see how tightly the clip holds the spreaders in place. If loose, then bend, otherwise leave as is. A test run would also let you determine the best way to approach it to prevent the spreading of the AS during installation. Also, don't go so heavy with it that it is "squished" out from between the IC and the spreader, on to the pcb. Apply it like you would to a cpu heatsink...just a fine layer, enough to fill the tiny imperfections and make contact.

just realized something... will i have to remove the stickers from the ram itself ? Or would that void warranty?

It will void warranty, but it's also necessary for proper contact. Nasty tradeoff, isn't it?

If you really want to cool your memory and would rather not void the warranty, a good fan above the modules can do wonders.

johan851 said:

It will void warranty, but it's also necessary for proper contact. Nasty tradeoff, isn't it?

If you really want to cool your memory and would rather not void the warranty, a good fan above the modules can do wonders.

Click to expand...

You know guys, got all caught up in the heatspreader question that I totally missed that warranty point. Very valid indeed. Skip the spreaders and do the fan thing, just like johan851 suggested.

its all good, i plan on vioding warranty later on with some heavy voltage anyway...lol.. although these are warrantied up to 2.9v, and I can't find a bios that'll let me go over that....